Saturday, October 30, 2010

Republican candidates of all races need and want blacks to vote for them. The video above intertwines photos of a few black Republicans from our country's history, with is of the fourteen black men and women who are seeking election to Congress this coming Tuesday. On one level, this video is a repudiation of President Barack Obama's statement: "They're counting on young people staying home and union members staying home and black folks staying home." But the real aim is to inspire blacks to leave behind a Democrat party that has failed them and "vote republican for the very first time."

Update 2: In addition to Kevin's suggestion, I got some good feedback from Chris who wrote in part: "I love it except for the references to Frederick Douglas and Black's history with the Republican Party. The Republican brand is in the tank when it comes to African Americans and it's been like that for a long time - and will continue to be in my opinion." In response, I've posted Take 3 above. This version does not include any of the historical figures. The second version is online here.

Chris's comment reminded me of two things. First, the weekend before an election, no one wants a history lesson. And, second, ironically, a history lesson about Tip O'Neill's only defeat:

[Tip O'Neill] ran for and lost by 150 votes election as North Cambridge city councilman, his only political defeat. Before the vote he was surprised when longtime neighbor Mrs. O’Brien said: Tom (he was called Tom at home), I will vote for you, even though you did not ask for my support.

Stunned, O’Neill said, “Mrs. O’Brien, I have lived across the street from you for 18 years, have cut your grass summers and shoveled snow from your walks winters. I didn’t think I needed to ask for your vote. Mrs. O’Brien said, “Let me tell you something, Tom–people like to be asked.”

O’Neill took this lesson to heart, the origin of his oft-repeated maxim he made famous: “All politics is local.” Tip learned early that a politician serves at the pleasure of his constituents; that voters have names, faces, minds, and opinions; that they have problems they want your help on; and that they expect you to ask for their vote. (Editorial 1995, Nolan 1994)

The video above hits this point harder than the prior two. I removed the history lesson and adjusted the score.

BTW, if you want the elephant I created for the video, you can download a black and white JPEG or SVG (Adobe Illustrator) version. Feel free to print up some flyers to handout to friends and family asking them to vote Republican! I've created flyers/business cards that you could hand-out at polling places (observing all local laws, of course). You could either tailor this MS-Word version to the races in your district or you could use the generic "vote conservative/vote republican" message on this PDF version.

Friday, October 29, 2010

That's the subject line of an email I got today from Joe Biden and the rest of it didn't get any more encouraging for Democrats. Let's have a read:

Darin --

There's only one way to wake up the morning after an election -- with no regrets.

Ya gotta hand it to Joe—he has a way of sound vice presidential.

There's only one way to be sure that's how you wake up on November 3rd: giving everything you've got in the last five days.

Because if you don't, they're just gonna tax it from you anyway.

That's why I'm out there day after day, doing exactly what you're doing -- talking to voters.

These kinds of conversations are the most effective thing we can do in a campaign -- you know it. I know it. They're how we brought change to this country after years of Republican malarkey. They're how we won the White House.

"Malarkey." Is that how the hipsters are talkin' these day? Wow. I've been away from the scene for too long.

I know what you're doing is working because, when I'm on the road or the President's on the road, the crowds are fired up and ready to go. I'm seeing positive signs everywhere, and millions of our supporters -- including tens of thousands who have never voted before in a midterm election -- are voting early.

But we have less than a week left, and we need everyone to dig deep.

Joe's always been a master of subtlety, so if you haven't been able to penetrate his opaqueness, let me clue you in: he wants your money.

Because none of us is alone in this work, Organizing for America is pairing every grassroots donor who gives this week with another individual giving the same amount. All of us want to make an impact in these final five days, and this is a way to double it.

Hah! If you did not find yourself rolling on the floor after that paragraph, you must be either be a leftist or a humorless git. Here's the translation: "Because Moneybags Soros decided to cut us loose we have to create a meaningless incentive for our last minute pledge drive."

Please chip in $3 or more right now.

I'd never bet against this movement.

I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that several Vegas bookies have already retired after a career of betting against Joe Biden.

You're out there week after week, defying expectations. You knock on doors day after day. You make calls night after night.

Um. Joe. Um, not in Union, MO or Festus. Would you like to know where else OFA has gone dark? I don't know if you can handle it. I mean, your job is to rally the troops and that might be hard to do if you knew that the folks in St. Peters weren't pulling their weight.

Someone told me she couldn't believe that Organizing for America was reaching out to 7 million voters this week...

...and I told her that she shouldn't be surprised. You don't wait for the moment to come to you, you go out and seize it. Just Tuesday night I was in New York talking with a roomful of volunteers who were making calls and getting out the vote -- and it was a powerful thing to witness.

But we can't let up now.

That's only because you haven't yet begun to fight or something like that.

There are campaign offices out there that need to add extra phone lines because they're packed with volunteers ready to make calls. There are volunteers ready to go canvass, but they need flyers to go door to door. There are kids on college campuses working to get their classmates to vote, and they need our help, too.

I don't want to let any of them down -- not now, not when we're so close.

So I need you to join another supporter and commit to this work, together.

Really, what could be more pathetic than running a fundraiser around a matching donation when no one stepped up to provide that donation. Veep Dude, it's embarassing.

Please donate $3 or more today:

https://donate.barackobama.com/NoRegrets

Thanks for all you do,

Joe Biden

Unbelievable. They ain't got nothin' left except vice-presidential Joe-mentum to carry them on.

The St. Louis Tea Party Coalition's phonebanking and canvasing were pretty amazing today. Over 2000 calls were made and 144 households in Missouri's Third Congressional District were visited by the 21 volunteers that came out. Thanks to everyone for the dedication (and to Rob for the photos)!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Citizens United held a screening of their new movie Battle for America (preview above). The movie was quite good, but I have to confess that I spent at least 30-minutes of it talking with the directors (David Bossie and Stephen Bannon), the Citizens United staff, and other Tea Partiers. It was much more of a networking event for me, so I'm sorry that I can't provide a better review.

That said, I did get several good pictures as did the other Tea Party photographers at the event. There were a number of familiar Tea Party faces. The picture to the right was taken by jd wilson. I tweeted a picture of Michelle Moore, one of Dana Loesch and Michelle, and one of David Bossie. I also saw Lt. Gov Peter Kinder and the Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft.

The group Pack Up and Get Out has a simple message for Dem. Rep. Russ Carnahan: pack up and get out. To make that message clear, it recently sent 300 boxes to the Rep’s St. Louis field office. When the office rejected the delivery, one of the group‘s representatives decided to confront the Rep’s staff.

On August 27, 2007, reporter Tony Messenger of the Springfield News-Leader sent the governor's office a modest request under Missouri's Sunshine Law, which ensures that government records are open to the public. Messenger wanted copies of any e-mails that Martin had sent to a certain pro-life group during the previous week.

Blunt's staff responded that no such e-mails existed.

Messenger insisted they did. A source had already forwarded one to him. And he believed that it strongly suggested that Martin was mixing "partisan campaigning with the process of doing his state job," or working for the GOP while on the public dime.

Martin acknowledged writing the e-mail in question, but maintained — and still does today — that all of his correspondence was policy-based, and therefore legit.

In that case, Messenger argued, the documents were public record and had to be retained. Yet Blunt staffers insisted at first that none of their e-mails were public record. That's exactly why they were getting deleted.

Deleted? The media collectively gasped. "Memogate" had begun.

...

Blunt wrangled with the investigators for a year, then finally agreed to release the records free of charge. When reporters pored over them, they discovered hundreds of e-mails responsive to Tony Messenger's original request. Martin had deleted them — before, he says, the request came in — but they'd been retained on backup tapes.

"I did not, and I don't think anybody did think, that a normal request for Sunshine information required retrieval from the backup tapes," Martin later said in a deposition.

Interestingly, when Messenger finally got his hands on Martin's e-mails — the ones the governor's office fought so hard to protect — the worst he could write was that they were "questionably relevant to state business." The scandal, it turned out, had more to do with Blunt's resistance to releasing the e-mails, than their actual content.

Hackman is Russ Carnahan's marketing play on Memogate, but the irony is that the requested emails were released and they exonerated Ed Martin. It's a non-issue.

Monday, October 25, 2010

You've probably heard the adage: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." That's known as Hanlon's Razor. There is a similar though profoundly different adage known as Clark's Law (named in honor of Arthur C. Clark): "Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

Over the past couple of days, 24thState.com detailed the connections between the smear and Russ Carnahan's campaign. The connections are sometimes indirect—laundered, so to speak, through third parties. Some highlights from 24thState include the sock puppetry of Victor Arango and Jeannine Dillon:

An Emmy award-winning journalist and an Edward R Murrow award winning journalist were reduced to leaving fake comments, anonymous diaries, and lame Facebook comments to spread a story. They couldn't use their contacts in media to push the smear, so they attempted to fake it online.

Note that $2000 is what Corwin says he was paid. If Stanford did indeed hire Corwin, and he was paid from the invoice, it seems the 120 day trigger for campaign finance violations was absolutely hit, and it calls into question the verbal statement from Corwin and the Carnahans that "June" or "last spring" was when they parted ways. The Carnahan campaign has to answer this. Did the research they paid for on August 5 concern information that led to the creation of TheRealEdMartin?

In short, you cannot post a diary at FiredUpMissouri without the express permission of an admin. A new user would have to be approved by Sean Nicholson or another admin to post. The site is tightly controlled.

The cosmopolatino account doesn't show up in the normal sequence. In fact, it doesn't show up at all. And there have been no postings or comments before or after that I could find. It was a single diary from an anonymous individual that spent days sitting in the latest diaries section of FiredUp. That's the perfect place for deniability.

Notice the date that video was posted: October 19th, 2010. Now notice the timestamps of these posts on Ed Martin's facebook wall from the Carnahan campaign's chief harridan, Teri Powers:

Again. Sloppy. Teri Powers knew about the smear campaign and simply couldn't wait for the video release and her ebullience got the best of her. This is the kind of incompetence that advises and serves Missouri's Third Congressional District in our nation's capital.

The campaign of desperate Democrat Russ Carnahan has coordinated a smear on Ed Martin. The attack alleges that Ed Martin was complicit in shuffling pedophile priests around St. Louis Catholic Churches while he served at the St. Louis Archdiocese (www.therealedmartin.com). In the video above, Ed Martin, Marie Kenyon, and Rev. Bruce McCoy speak to the allegations. Marie is a life-long Democrat who worked with Ed at the Archdiocese. Marie makes the key point:

What was said about Ed in the video is simply not true. Anyone who knows the Catholic church knows lay employees have no say-so, no responsibility whatsoever in priestly claimants. They just don't.

If the claims of TheRealEdMartin are true, I believe that Ed Martin must step down. If they are false, then the Carnahan campaign must disavow them and apologize. Because Ed and Russ are necessarily biased actors on this very public stage, I would suggest a jury of their peers. Such a jury would consist of candidates and elected office holders in Missouri's Third Congressional District. Do the Aldermen of St. Louis stand by the charge that Ed Martin was complicit in pedophilia? Does Mayor Slay? Do the candidates for the state house stand with Russ or Ed on this?

Out on the campaign trail Barack Obama has given us his analysis of why his party is headed for significant losses in the election nine days hence. 'Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now,' said the president for whom politics did not seem so tough in 2008, 'and facts and science and argument do not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country's scared.'

In other words, the voters can't see straight.

But maybe it's the Obama Democrats who are so scared they can't see straight.

John Maynard Keynes famously said that practical men of business are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. In this case it seems that practical men of politics may be the slaves of some defunct political scientists and historians.

I think it would be more accurate to modernize that quote like this: "It seems that practical men of politics are usually the slaves of John Maynard Keynes." This is the point I was making last night when I wrote:

Keynesian economics hasn't been working so well largely because governments spend like drunken sailors regardless of whether there's a surplus or not. As a result, the part of Keynesian policy where you're suppose to pay the debt down never actually materializes, thus, it has become our road to perdition.

I've heard repeatedly this political season that both Democrat and Republican economists agreed on the bailouts and supported the stimulus. Of course they did—they're all Keynesian economists!

Sorry, a bit late on this one, but I see old Kruggers, Nobel prize winner and New York Times columnist, is at it again. Not content to lecture his own country’s administration about how they are not spending enough, Professor Krugman lambasts Britain’s coalition government in his latest column for its deficit reduction plan, which he reckons will condemn the UK to a depression.

Keynesian economics hasn't been working so well largely because governments spend like drunken sailors regardless of whether there's a surplus or not. As a result, the part of Keynesian policy where you're suppose to pay the debt down never actually materializes, thus, it has become our road to perdition.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

This past Friday, Judge Rod Chapel issued his opinion in the case of Peace of Mind Adult Day Care Center vs. Department of Social Services (DSS), MO HealthNet Division, and Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). His ruling excoriates those three bureaucracies for institutional racism. His full opinion is below.

Stephanie Patton, an African-American woman, opened Peace of Mind Adult Day Care in 1993. It was the first adult day care in the Show Me State to specifically cater to African-Americans. Most of Stephanie's clients are poor, so much of her funding came from Medicaid. She was driven out of business in 2009 by the combined forces of DSS, HealthNet, and DHSS. This entrepreneur employed ten people and the DHSS shut her down in the middle of a recession.

I spoke with Stephanie Saturday evening about the past two years.

In October of 2008, DHSS inspectors Cassie Blum and Sharon Buckner conducted a surprise inspection of Peace of Mind. During the inspection Blum asked Stephanie not to accompany them. The procedure during inspections is for someone from the day care facility to accompany the inspector(s). Blum asked Stephanie to not accompany them, but Stephanie insisted. The disagreement devolved from there. Blum called Stephanie the n-word, struck Stephanie, and ultimately called the police on her. When Stephanie asked one of the responding officers why Blum had been so out of line, he told her that he didn't know and added that it "seemed like [Blum] was out to get you."

Judge Chapel agreed. Here's what he wrote [emphasis added]:

Patton testified that Blum called her a "nigger" and said she was illiterate during the October 16, 2008 inspection. We consider this as a claim that DHSS's actions were the result of a racially discriminatory animus and that DHSS's actions deprived Patton of due process and equal protection of the laws, in violation of U.S. Const. amend. 5, 14 and 15, and Mo. Const. art. I, §§ 2 and 10.

The rest of Chapel's ruling reads like a 2x4 to the head, but we first have to return to Stephanie to understand the ramifications that her run-in with Blum would have.

Peace of Mind was operating on Olive in University City. Stephanie had moved her family out to Chesterfield a few years earlier. Her run-in with DHSS was about to get worse. In December of 2008, inspectors Niekamp and Shelly Williamson arrived for another surprise inspection. In their report, the inspectors noted that Peace of Mind did not have a nurse on duty; however, two nurses were present and on duty during the inspection. Apparently, the inspectors never asked if there were any nurses on duty.

License issues quickly ensued for Stephanie and Peace of Mind Day Care as a result of the false report. The net result of those licensing issues was that Peace of Mind was unable to get Medicaid funding.

By April of 2009 Peace of Mind was out of business. In June of 2009 Stephanie was trying to sell her house to raise money to pay a lawyer. She was worrying that she wouldn't have money to feed her children. One day, while showing the house to a potential buyer, two lawyers from MO Attorney General Chris Koster's office arrived at her residence. They gave her a large folder of documents and told her, in front of the potential buyer, that they were charging her with half a million dollars of Medicaid fraud ($487,462.08 to be exact).

This was devastating. Stephanie's home went into foreclosure, she had to sell her car, and she suffered severe depression. As Judge Chapel notes:

At the time of the hearing, [Stephanie] was emotionally distraught, but otherwise was able to testify.

While discussing the trial with Stephanie, I learned that the court reporter was so moved by what she heard that she too was crying during the testimony. The collapse of the business and with it Stephanie's life was precipitated by the false report that there wasn't a nurse on duty. As Judge Chapel notes [emphasis added]:

We have found that Peace of Mind had a nurse on duty at all times. There is not a basis for sanctions under Regulation 13 CSR 70-3.030(3)(A) 12.

DSS argues that Peace of Mind failed to maintain a license, as required for participation in the MO HealthNet program. DHSS granted a provisional license for a social model to Peace of Mind for a limited time. We have found that Peace of Mind had a nurse on duty; thus, there was no reason not to continue Peace of Mind's license as a medical model. We find no basis for sanctions under Regulation 13 CSR 70-3.030(3)(A)13 for failure to meet program requirements, such as licensure.

The judge also ruled that because Stephanie did not have any prior sanctions from DHSS, going after her for $487,462.08 of Medicaid fraud was not justified. He noted that DHSS never required provider education or other available remedies. With 15+ years of service, they decided to throw the book at her. From the ruling:

We also conclude that the sanction of termination of Peace of Mind's status as a MO
HealthNet provider was not warranted. There has been no allegation or showing that Peace of
Mind provided substandard services, committed any fraud, or failed to perform any service for
which she received payment.
...
We conclude that Peace of Mind is not subject to MO HealthNet sanctions.

As Peace of Mind was dealing with licensing issues in late 2008 and early 2009, they were still caring for patients. However, their Medicaid claims to the tune of $45,340 were denied. Without revenue to pay her operating costs, Stephanie had no choice but to wind down her business. The closing summary of ruling provides:

[Stephanie] is entitled to payment of$45,340 for services rendered from December 20, 2008,
through February 20, 2009.

During her ordeal, Stephanie reached out to leaders in Jefferson City, MO. She said that the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus was unresponsive. Jay Nixon did not return her calls. Margaret Donnelly Director of DHSS was unresponsive. Interestingly, Donnelly represented Stephanie before Stephanie moved to Chesterfield. Cole McNary, her current state rep, took the time to hear her story, was instrumental in setting up meetings, and sent a supportive letter to Judge Chapel.

Stephanie also reached out for support to friends and family. One of those friends is Jacque Ehrlich (the Missouri state chairmom for AsAMom.org). Jacque provided both moral and professional support including testifying on Stephanie's behalf. Stephanie was never able to raise money for a lawyer. As a paralegal, Jacque was able to provide some advice; however, Stephanie represented herself in court. She took on the system and their lawyers and with God's help she prevailed. While talking about her ordeal, the most poignant moment was when she told me: "I thank God for this affliction."

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Congratulations to the editors at the Washington Post. Seventeen months after the Eric Holder Justice Department dismissed a slam-dunk case against the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation, the Post gets around to printing a thorough vetting of the dismissal. The story is slated for Saturday’s print edition. While other media like Breitbart/The Bigs, Fox News, the Washington Times, the Weekly Standard, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Investors Business Daily, Pajamas Media, and Drudge have had dozens of stories on the corrupt New Black Panther dismissal, the Washington Post at last is in the game.

The story is a shocker too. The shock comes from the middle of the road and factual nature of the story.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Paul Curtman (R) jumped on the national stage in the summer of 2009 when he took the stage at Claire McCaskill's Question Session. In just over two minutes, he succinctly captured the sentiment of the nation's opposition to big Washington and the healthcare bill in particular. Here he is from that event:

Curtman was recruited by the Missouri GOP to run for office in the 105th state house district. His opponent is incumbent Democrat Michael Frame (D). Frame is a union leader turned politician in this Democrat leaning district.

Curtman's decision to run for office was made out of his loyalty to America. He's not a politician, but rather a homeschooled Marine who's father is both a Baptist pastor and a history professor. Paul knows the Constitution. He's written a book about it (available on his campaign website). He feels strongly that "if you have the ability to act, you have the responsibility to act."

Ten years in the Marine Corps taught Curtman about leadership and loyalty. He rose to the rank of sergeant and was an infantry squad leader before returning to Missouri. He began a career as a licensed financial advisor after his service, but decided a year ago that he needed to go all-in if he was going to run for office. He left his job to begin knocking on doors in Missouri's 105th and asking people for their vote on November 2nd.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The campaign of desperate Democrat Russ Carnahan has coordinated a smear on Ed Martin. The attack alleges that Ed Martin was complicit in shuffling pedophile priests around St. Louis Catholic Churches while he served at the St. Louis Archdiocese (www.therealedmartin.com). In the video above, Ed Martin, Marie Kenyon, and Rev. Bruce McCoy speak to the allegations. Marie is a life-long Democrat who worked with Ed at the Archdiocese. Marie makes the key point:

What was said about Ed in the video is simply not true. Anyone who knows the Catholic church knows lay employees have no say-so, no responsibility whatsoever in priestly claimants. They just don't.

The real question is: who started the whisper campaign? We know that Corwin was paid by Carnahan, though he alleges that he no longer has ties. One wonders if the Carnahan propaganda organ, FiredUpMissouri, with their post from cosmopolatino coordinated with rotciv over at The Riverfront Times. FiredUpMissouri and RFT should publish the IP addresses to clear the air.

Update: It occurs to me that this is either the sort of thing that Ed Martin should be condemned for (if one thinks Ed's guilty) or the sort of thing that his accusers should be condemned for (if one understands how the Catholic church's hierarchy works and that Ed could not have played a role in priest shuffling). I'd like to ask politicians and candidates, both Republican and Democrat, who are members of the Catholic church in Missouri's Third Congressional District: Do you think Ed Martin was complicit or do you think he was smeared? And, if you think he was smeared, was the Carnahan campaign responsible for the smear?

Welcome! And thanks to Erick Erickson of RedState for the link! The Dems are desperate and they're trying to demoralize us. Don't let them inside your head. Here's a little caffeine for your eyes and ears (watch the videos at the link). If you or someone you know needs a little pick-me-up before hitting the bricks to canvas for a candidate or phonebank, these should help get you going:

But let’s be clear about one thing: Nancy Pelosi is not the problem with the Democratic caucus in the United States House of Representatives. Rather, her speakership is a symptom of the problem, which is that the power structure in the party caucus is tilted far to the left of the swing voters who empowered congressional Democrats back in 2006.

The root of the problem is the organization of the Democratic vote across the 435 congressional districts, as seen in this bar chart:

If you are wondering why a political party elected to fix the economy instead committed itself to a massively unpopular health care reform that has been a liberal dream since 1946, this graph is a big part of the answer. Sixty-nine House districts gave Obama 70 percent of the vote or more (compared to 21 districts that went so heavily for George W. Bush in 2004). The Democrats in these districts occupy the safest districts in the entire country. No Republican wave can possibly breach their defenses. Accordingly, their political incentives revolve entirely around liberal pressure groups and Democratic clients like the labor unions – and not at all around the swing voters who determine control of the government. They are free to chase the ghosts of FDR, Truman, and LBJ, so long as organized labor supports it.

Reinforcing this structure is the fact that the House caucus operates on a seniority system, at least by and large. Because these members from far left districts are undefeatable, they tend to be the most senior, and thus chair the important committees...

The Lizard Lady, Nancy Pelosi, will retain her power within the Democrat House caucus regardless of the vote on November 2nd.

At an April 2008 fund-raiser in San Francisco, Barack Obama let loose with his famous 'they cling to guns or religion' line. Last Saturday at a West Newton, Mass., fund-raiser, the president said, 'facts and science and argument [do] not seem to be winning . . . because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared.'

The tea party-fueled midterm elections of 2010 have featured a surprising group of men in a cameo role: the Founding Fathers. And for much of the debate over the United States’ origins, the Democrats have ceded the field.

From Alaska to Utah to Kentucky to Delaware, Republican Senate candidates, backed by the tea party, have broadly asserted that the U.S. federal government for decades has exceeded the boundaries of the Constitution and the will of its drafters, who they say envisioned a weak central government empowered mainly to defend the country and govern truly interstate commerce.

On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.

He continued: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.

NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

Policy-wise I don't often agree with Juan Williams, but I've always found his defense of the left sincere and genuine. I find it appalling that he would lose his job for that candor.

From a journalistic perspective, I think this is indicative of the disconnect between the elites and the rest of us. Average Americans can discern opinions in the media and filter the news accordingly; however, media elites have constructed a cargo cult around the totem of sounding objective. Look, we are better informed when we understand the biases, experiences, and world-views of those that bring us the news. Mr. Williams built rapport and credibility with his audience by simply acknowledging a fear that most Americans have.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Riverfront Times has an exhaustive bio of Ed Martin. Here's an important bit about his work confronting voter fraud in St. Louis city:

In April 2002, U.S. Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond, the Missouri Republican, brought an English springer spaniel onto the Senate floor in Washington, D.C. Making the case for national election reform, he wanted all to meet Ritzy. She'd been registered to vote in St. Louis.

The city had a bad reputation for voting irregularities, but the November 2000 election was truly a farce. Hundreds of citizens showed up to vote but found their names had been mistakenly dropped from the rolls. When a judge ordered an emergency extension of voting hours, a higher state court quickly reversed it — but folks kept voting anyway.

By the end of Election Day, Bond was pounding his fist on a lectern, declaring the whole thing "an outrage." Yet the problems persisted into the next year, when two prominent aldermen registered to vote — despite being dead.

In 2003, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board blasted the Board of Election Commissioners as an "unconscionable mess," where patronage employees "who owe their allegiance to politicians have never been known for their devotion to long hours and hard work."

Enter Ed Martin.

He'd been busy since leaving the archdiocese, clerking for a federal appeals court judge, getting married, having a baby and practicing law at Bryan Cave. Governor Matt Blunt appointed him to chair the bipartisan board in May 2005.

Within three months, Martin and his two fellow commissioners had fired or demoted seven top staffers, including some Republicans. They refined the duties of those remaining with a clear message: Do your job, or lose your job. Martin also handed over evidence of voter fraud to the authorities.

Even Democrats who wouldn't dream of supporting Martin's current bid for Congress give him props for his tenure as chairman.

Jeff Rainford, St. Louis mayor Francis Slay's chief of staff, lauds Martin for recruiting able workers to get the trains running on time. By November 2008, Rainford observed, the board of elections was "like night and day" from its 2000 woes, which he finds ironic, given that it probably hurt Martin's party.

"Though he is obviously one of the most partisan guys around," Rainford says, "Ed still wanted the place run right, even if that meant more Democrats would vote."

A vigorous post-Labor Day Democratic offensive has failed to diminish the resurgent Republicans' lead among likely voters, leaving the GOP poised for major gains in congressional elections two weeks away, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

A Democratic offensive failed to diminish the lead among Republicans among likely voters, leaving the GOP poised for major gains in November elections, according to a new WSJ/NBC News poll. Jonathan Weisman and Evan Newmark discuss. Also, David Reilly discusses Bank of America's continuing foreclosure battle.

Among likely voters, Republicans hold a 50% to 43% edge, up from a three-percentage-point lead a month ago.

Sure. It's good news. Now pick up the phone—that's what will win it for us.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that most Likely Voters think their representative in Congress does not deserve reelection if he or she voted for the national health care law, the auto bailouts or the $787-billion economic stimulus plan. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The NAACP has commissioned the report below. The St. Louis Tea Party is mentioned a couple of times. Here are the quotes and my $.02:

The St. Louis Tea Party passed a resolution which included language that: “The very term
‘racist’ has diminished meaning due to its overuse by political partisans including members of
the NAACP.”

Yup. That seems about right. And then there's this:

Further, almost three-quarters of Tea Party supporters (73%), told pollsters that government programs aimed at providing a social safety net for poor people actually encourages them to remain poor. In fact, more than a bit of anecdotal evidence shows hostility and resentment
towards the poor and the programs designed to help them. Hence, the signs such as one at an
early St. Louis Tea Party that read: “Honk if I am paying your mortgage.” Not every Tea party
supporter exhibited such feelings, certainly, but enough of it showed up in opinion polls to give
credence to the description of Tea Parties as mean-spirited.

Oddly, there's no mention of the St. Louis Tea Party's support of Circle of Concern and Operation Food Search. That's what we call selective reporting. Conservatives do resent the rampant vote buying with social programs and the fraud in the system that goes unaudited. The left would never ignore a conflict of interest between monied corporate interests and the voters, so why do they ignore the conflict of interest between public largess and the welfare recipients that receive it?

The poll of Missouri's Third Congressional District was commissioned by Ed Martin's campaign (give me a break, I was reaching for a title for this post). Ed's down 48-41 with a 5% error margin with Russ outperforming the generic ballot in St. Louis city, St. Louis county, and even Jefferson County. Ed and Russ are tied at 41 in JeffCo, which I also find surprising. I would think that Ed would be comfortably ahead down there. Oddly, it doesn't look like they polled St. Genevieve.

The Hill is reporting on the Democrat hypocrisy of accusing Republicans of foreign funding while Dems have raised more than $1 million this cycle from foreign-affiliated PACs: "Democratic leaders in the House and Senate criticizing GOP groups for allegedly funneling foreign money into campaign ads have seen their party raise more than $1 million from political action committees affiliated with foreign companies."

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Politics, it is often said, makes for strange bedfellows. The 2010 midterm elections are making for quite the strange bedfellow matchmaker.

Take as evidence these photographs of Ed Martin, far-right Republican candidate for Congress, buddying up with Mayor Francis G. Slay this weekend at the Columbus Day Parade in St. Louis.

And then further down:

Slay campaign communications operative Richard Callow tends to be more talkative. So we asked him.

We asked, “What is this supposed to mean about the mayor's professed support for Russ Carnahan? I need to check my calendar, but it seems like Nov. 2 is awfully close to be playing those sorts of footises with someone you are trying to beat. Unless, of course, you aren't really trying to beat the person you say you are trying to beat.”

Callow wrote right back: “You probably missed this tweet from @SMGregali: ‘Walking in the Columbus Day Parade with Mayor Slay & Cong. Carnahan.’”

The EYE wrote back: “And he probably hoped we would miss the cozy photos. Some mouths have two sides – some tongues, two forks.” As former Comptroller Virvus Jones likes to say, What it is, it ain’t.

As Editor at 24thState reported in September, someone—presumably Mayor Slay or someone close to him—has registered the domain: www.SlayForCongress.com. Maybe someone should ask Callow about that. Maybe someone already has.

Obviously, a Democrat like Mayor Slay has to go through the formalities of fund raisers for Russ Carnahan (D-MO). However, Slay can also see that the Tea Party tide might well wash Russ from office. Having served as Mayor of St. Louis for nearly ten years, it's not surprising that he might look to move on to Congress in 2012.

During those years of service, Mayor Slay would have worked with Russ's opponent Ed Martin as Ed served on the St. Louis City Board of Election Commissioners. While serving on the Board, Ed took an active role in renewing the Board's commitment to free and fair elections. A lot of people have forgotten that. And I don't think Ed talks about his work improving the integrity of St. Louis city elections as much as he should.

St. Louis city had serious voter fraud problems prior to Ed's service. John Fund is quote at Heritage.org: "...in St. Louis it was discovered that voter rolls included 13,000 more names than the U.S. Census listed as the total number of adults in the city." Meanwhile, RottenAcorn.com's tally of vote tampering reports: "Of 5,379 voter registration cards ACORN submitted in St. Louis, only 2,013 of those appeared to be valid. At least 1,000 are believed to be attempts to register voters illegally."

By cleaning up city elections, Ed Martin burnished the credibility of subsequent elected officials, including Mayor Slay. So it's hardly surprising that Slay has a soft-spot for Ed.

Here's a video of Ed Martin at McArthur's Bakery from August 2009 talking about vote fraud and his work to mitigate it when he served on the St. Louis City Board of Election Commissioners:

For the better part of two generations, the best political science departments have concentrated on equipping students with skills for performing empirical research and teaching mathematical models that purport to describe political affairs. Meanwhile, leading history departments have emphasized social history and issues of race, class and gender at the expense of constitutional history, diplomatic history and military history.

Neither professors of political science nor of history have made a priority of instructing students in the founding principles of American constitutional government. Nor have they taught about the contest between the progressive vision and the conservative vision that has characterized American politics since Woodrow Wilson (then a political scientist at Princeton) helped launch the progressive movement in the late 19th century by arguing that the Constitution had become obsolete and hindered democratic reform.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

FiveThirtyEight’s projection for the U.S. House shows little change from last week. Republicans are given a 73 percent chance of taking over the House, up incrementally from 72 percent last week. During an average simulation run, Republicans finished with 227 seats, up from 226 last week; this would suggest a net gain of 48 seats from the 179 they hold currently.

However, there is considerable uncertainty in the forecast because of the unusually large number of House seats now in play. A gain of as large as 70-80 seats is not completely out of the question if everything broke right for Republicans. Conversely, if Democrats managed to see a material rebound in their national standing over the final two weeks of the campaign, they could lose as few as 20-30 seats, as relatively few individual districts are certain pickups for Republicans.

Meanwhile, Gateway Pundit is reporting: "According to the latest NPR Battleground Survey 86 Republican candidates are either tied or ahead of their democratic opponent in democrat-held districts."

During the last 14 days the White House and President Obama have gone on the attack, and their strategy is pretty simple: "Let's acknowledge the voter anger and make sure it gets funneled toward something else." Thus we have seen political attacks on just about everyone -- and everything -- out there. The problem, though, is that voters aren't angry with Karl Rove, John Boehner, the Chamber of Commerce or even the "undisclosed financing" of elections. Voters are angry about the economy and they have two devastating perceptions of this administration: voters think it is incompetent and that it has overreached over the past two years.

An even bigger problem for the White House is that voters may have already tuned the President out; virtually every possible metric used to evaluate the outcome of the midterm elections suggest a massive GOP victory. So let's just come out and say it: there is no reason to think that Republicans will do any worse than 1994 (when they picked up 54 seats) and there is plenty of data to suggest that it will, in fact, be a better year for the GOP. Our projection -- based on all current available data -- is that the GOP will gain between 60 and 70 House seats in November.

Friday, October 15, 2010

(October 15, 2010)- On September 25th, 2010, the St Louis Tea Party Coalition unveiled the Tea Party Treaty. As the document rolled out across Missouri and across the Nation, Tea Party Organizations signed on. What happened next was completely unexpected.

As Missouri Candidate Ed Martin humbly signed on to the Treaty as the first official signature, word quickly spread through Congressional and Senatorial circles. Candidates and Elected Officials alike began flocking toward the document, wishing to sign onto the Treaty as well.

Congressman Roy Blunt, and Candidates Robyn Hamlin, Paul Curtman and Greg Zotta quickly followed suit. On Saturday, October 16, Senator Jim Lembke will be joining volunteers at St. Louis Tea Party Coalition Headquarters to work along side them, thank them for their efforts, and address his Constituents. Senator Lembke has announced that he will be signing onto the Treaty at that time, as will Candidate Gary Fuhr.

Also confirmed to sign the Treaty are Candidate Brian Neives on Tuesday, October 19, as well as Congressman Todd Akin at a time to be determined. An additional forty-plus Candidates and Elected Officials, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, have received a copy of the Tea Party Treaty for consideration.

As Candidates and Officials sign on to the Treaty, they make a very public statement of entering into accountability with the Constituents, something the voters are looking for in the upcoming election. While the Mainstream Tea Party Movement continues to push forward amidst an unprecedented Mid-term Election, Candidates are opting for the Treaty as tool of choice to gain voter confidence.

The purpose of the Tea Party Treaty is to hold signatories in alignment with Tea Party Principles: Fiscal Accountability, Transparency in Government and Constitutional Principles at every level of government.

And, remember, the St. Louis Tea Party is looking for volunteers to help out at our south city office located at 4512 Hampton Av. We specifically need volunteers to phone-bank Saturday from 10am-2pm. And there's BBQ for volunteers from 2 to 5.

Please make a commitment to schedule a few hours per week to spreading the liberty evangelism message in the Show Me State!

Newt Gingrich has pointed out that the November 2010 midterm election is about paychecks vs food stamps. Despite record spending on food stamps and unemployment benefits, job losses continue to mount. Nonetheless, on Nancy Pelosi's planet people still believe that unemployment benefits and food stamps create jobs.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

A feisty, aggressive Ms. O’Donnell called Mr. Coons a Marxist whose beliefs came from a socialist professor and said he would “rubber stamp” the policies of the Democrats in Washington. Mr. Coons raised questions about whether Ms. O’Donnell’s faith would drive her positions on social issues like abortion, prayer and evolution.

No need to worry, though, Chris Coons was only joking about being a "bearded Marxist":

Mr. Coons responded that the source of her charge – an article he wrote as a student – was “a joke” that his Republican friends at the time conceived when he registered as a Democrat.

When is it funny to joke about being a "bearded Marxist"? Well, maybe if he was planning a new stand-up carrier based on the classic comedy of the Marx brothers...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the state of Illinois missed the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas American voters as part of a new federal overseas voting law.

Cris Cray, Director of Legislation at the Illinois State Board of Elections, says not all of Illinois' 110 jurisdictions were compliant with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE).

The law requires every state to mail their absentee ballots 45 days prior to Election Day to overseas troops, government employees and other Americans who want to vote from abroad.

Clearly the military community needs more organizing if it wants its votes to count!

Citizens of Ste. Genevieve gathered last evening to hear from the candidates wanting to represent them. As usual there was an empty seat where Congressman Carnahan should have been. The candidate forum, set up months ago by the local paper, was a timely chance to speak about the issues and ask for the support of the voters.

Instead of facing constituents Congressman Carnahan sent a canned speech filled with Pelosi talking points that he copied on a DVD and he sent to the paper in his place. He has been absent in his service and seems even in his campaign too.

Meanwhile Ed Martin addressed the crowd and personally asked for their support. He addressed their concerns and questions acting as a true representative should.

“Our unemployment rate has gone untouched at 9% and folks want to know who will work for them to help rectify this travesty. I have toured the farms of Ste. Genevieve, walked the streets of St. Louis City and County, and gone door-to-door in Jefferson County. I have left no stone unturned in reaching out to the people. I want the constituents of Missouri’s 3rd to rest assured I am working for them,” said Ed Martin.

State Sen. Roy Herron (D), who's running for the opening seat held by retiring Rep. John Tanner (D) in Tennessee's 8th congressional district, suggested the DCCC's decision to cancel ad buys in the race was tied to his refusal to back Pelosi.

'This morning The Jackson Sun reported for the first time what I’ve repeatedly told citizens: I will not vote for Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker,' Herron said in a statement. 'If the DCCC pulling ads is the price of independence and following my conscience, so be it. That’s the kind of congressman I’ll be."

Perhaps this is a stunt, but I wouldn't rule out Nancy Pelosi enforcing party discipline with that great big gavel of hers.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

More than 7 in 10 Americans use a word or phrase that is clearly negative when providing a top-of-mind reaction to the federal government.

A Sept. 20-21 USA Today/Gallup poll asked respondents what they would say "if someone asked you to describe the federal government in one word or phrase." The accompanying chart shows the results in graphic form, with the words or phrases displayed according to how frequently they are mentioned.

To many Democrats, the accusation by President Obama and other party leaders that foreign money might be bank rolling some pro-Republican political attack ads sounds both compelling and ominous -- but is it fair?

Ed Martin has put out his unofficial third quarter fundraising numbers – he raised over $400,000 this past quarter and has raised $1.2 million so far in this campaign provoking the National Republican committee to promote him to “young gun” status.

It seems that the tea party movement has coalesced around Ed Martin and a small but dedicated group of right wing ideologues are propping him up. While Ed Martin has been busy energizing the radical right, I have been fighting to improve the lives and opportunities for the constituents of the Missouri 3rd...

Believe it or not, this race is coming down to the wire. I don’t need to tell you what is at stake in this election --- I need you to join me now and take a stand.

Get that? Believe it or not, this race is coming down to the wire. It's an interesting way to characterize a district that isn't listed on any of the 87 House districts supposedy in the toss-up category.

Believe it or not? It's almost as if Russ is saying, no one would believe that a Dem+7 district held by Dick Gephardt would be at danger when a Carnahan was running. But it is true, and as we've reported before, Russ's internals have him scared, which is why he's planning for his post-Congressional career.

In the interest of mocking Russ Carnahan, I have to take exception to 24thState. When you're paying your volunteers $9/hr (see below), you have a significantly higher burn rate. Because Russ has to pay his canvassers, he has less money available for advertising; therefore, he sends out a plea for cash.

On the other hand, Ed Martin (R) has Tea Party support because he's a Tea Partier. And with that he has access to a huge pool of unpaid volunteers with which to get his message out. There's no better visual explanation of the difference between Russ's volunteer pool and Ed's than this 20-some seconds of video. The first two rows on one side of the hall stand and applaud for Russ after his closing statement, but the other 150 or so people remain seated. That's not an "enthusiasm gap," that's an "enthusiasm chasm":

Monday, October 11, 2010

Mr. Soros, a champion of liberal causes, has been directing his money to groups that work on health care and the environment, rather than electoral politics. Asked if the prospect of Republican control of one or both houses of Congress concerned him, he said: “It does, because I think they are pushing the wrong policies, but I’m not in a position to stop it. I don’t believe in standing in the way of an avalanche.”

With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.

Russ Carnahan (D-MO) claims to "deliver for us". The video above examines some of the things that Russ has delivered. If you'd like to learn more about what he's delivered for Missouri's Third Congressional District, here are some links to more information:

Then there are the trips he's taken on the corporate dime&mdash;yes, you paid for the karaoke in Portofino as well as his world tour&mdash;Russ, doesn't take a lot of corporate trips, but he does travel in style when he goes. The New York Times reports that Russ is #3 in Congress for corporate money spent on his travel.

I close this segment out with the breakdown of Russ Carnahan's PAC vs. individual donations the majority of which are from PACs. You will hear the phrase: "Russ Carnahan the PACman" throughout the remainder of the campaign.